U.S. Boosts Yemen Anti-Terror Funding

The focus is very much on Yemen now that it's clear the Detroit bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab got training and maybe his explosives there.

In the Yemeni capital of San'a, the U.S. Embassy was closed Monday - for the second day in a row - after a senior White House counterterrorism official said al Qaeda may be planning an attack.

It wouldn't be the first time. In 2008, 19 people died when the Embassy was bombed and rocketed by a group calling itself Islamic Jihad.

In 2000, the USS Cole was bombed during a stop in Yemen for refueling.

Over the weekend, CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus made a surprise visit to Yemen to meet the President. He announced the U.S. will more than double its $67 million counterterrorism aid package to the poor and heavily tribal country, which has been mired in civil war for a decade.

But even that infusion of funds may not be enough to tackle the threat from al Qaeda and its sympathizers.

"It's extremely difficult to eliminate the terrorist factions in Yemen, because even the Yemeni government doesn't have full control over its territory," said Peter Neumann, a security analyst with King's College, London.

Another terror expert agreed.

"The government is not in control of large parts of the territory. This is not really a sovereign place. You've got tribes, you have separatist groups, terrorist organizations," Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith. "Think of it as the wild west."

Haass, however, says the cash infusions from the U.S. are not misguided.

"We can't occupy the world. We can't occupy Afghanistan. We're not allowed in serious ways into Pakistan. We can't go into Yemen and Somalia and everywhere else," said Haass. "Instead, we have to try to build up the capacities of these governments."

It's a wise investment," adds Haass, "but we shouldn't expect complete success…Think of this as like fighting disease. Every once in a while you make some progress, but you never eliminate the virus. You're not going to eliminate Yemen as a place where the virus of terrorism exercises itself."

The Yemeni government - under heavy pressure to tackle militancy - is trying.

It ordered two missile strikes in December on what it said were al Qaeda targets. Officials claim 30 fighters were killed in the strikes.

The emergence of Yemen as a terrorist base is also complicating efforts to close down the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

Of the 198 detainees remaining there 89 are Yemenis...and the US government is reluctant to send them home.